Hypocritical Oath
by Shikaku Zetsumei
Summary: Hyperion leads development of Eridium-based technologies, but at what cost? Led by an amoral dictator, the employees of Hyperion are forced to do his bidding. Some willingly accept his methods. As for those who don't? They don't have a choice. Based on the Doctor's Orders ECHO logs.


A/N: Okay, so I told people I didn't have anything more planned for Borderlands, which is still mostly true, but I finally caught up with all four DLC and don't feel nearly as drained for ideas as I did several months back. Here's a story.

**The Welcome**

"Doctor Samuels! Hey, Doctor, wait up!"

A thin, mousy haired researcher chased after a blonde haired woman in a lab coat who was striding swiftly down the corridor leading to the Hyperion medical wing. Slightly out of breath, he mentally cursed the woman who, for someone of her age, could still manage such a fast pace.

"Wait – Alyssa! Wait up!" The man called out to his target.

The middle aged woman paused as she heard her name. As she turned, the small badge hanging off her pristine white lab coat swung gently. She adjusted her thick glasses nervously as she addressed the man.

"Jenkins," she said, slightly embarrassed. "I didn't know you worked here as well. Sorry about that, I guess I didn't really expect to know anyone here on my first day."

Catching his breath, the man known as Jenkins smiled lightly and shook his head.

"No biggie . . . I need more exercise anyway." He smiled sheepishly. "Anyway, congratulations on getting hired! In Medical R&D no less! They're one of Hyperion's most funded departments!"

Doctor Samuels shrugged.

"Well, the General Hospital wanted to strengthen their connections to Hyperion. And after twenty-five years of practicing medicine, I was feeling up for the research, so I offered." She smiled slightly. "It'll be fun, I think, seeing the other side of medical progress."

Jenkins made a face.

"Hard-working as always, huh? If I haven't known you for twenty odd years, I'd say you were crazy . . . but you always did like a challenge." He shrugged before changing the subject. "So anyway, what'll you be working on? I hear Med R&D has all sorts of fun stuff going on these days what with the discovery of Eridium."

Though her face was lined with age, Alyssa Samuels cracked a wide grin.

"I'll be looking into applications of Eridium on the human body! Maybe we can create something better than those stopgap Med Kits that are becoming so commonplace nowadays. If you recall, Hyperion recently discovered that extensive use of those things over a time span of several years can lead to massive tissue degradation! Now, the normal person won't notice, but for people undergoing therapy or even our soldiers fighting out there in the galaxies, it's a real problem! Maybe we could . . . "

Jenkins held up a hand placating.

"Whoa there, missy. Don't get too carried away now. I know the problems with the Med Kits. I co-authored the review, remember?"

Doctor Samuels flushed slightly.

"Ah . . . yes, well . . . sorry, I got a little carried away there . . . " she trailed off.

Jenkins laughed merrily. "Some things never change, huh?"

Holding out his hand, he grinned cheekily.

"Welcome to the Hyperion family, Doctor Samuels."

Smiling, Doctor Samuels decided to humor him.

"Pleasure to be here, Doctor Wyss." She said, shaking his hand.

With that, Jenkins Wyss wandered off back towards the food court. Doctor Samuels smiled to herself, shook her head slightly in amusement, before heading back down the hall. She was headed for Operation Room 3 where she had been given the task of overseeing a simple experiment.

"Observe the effects of Eridium and its byproducts on the living system," she muttered as she read off the clipboard she was carrying. "Hmm. I guess treating mice with varying doses will do. It'll take care of any physical observations too . . . "

She flipped the page, finding that the proposed experiment's report was a measly two pages. Alyssa Samuels sighed. The experiment itself was quite basic, but such was the nature of preliminary work. After all, she didn't exactly expect to be cranking out high profile papers until she had a bit more experience under her belt, so to speak.

'Well, it should get more interesting once we figure out more about this stuff.' She thought resignedly.

She entered the observation room attached to Operation Room 3. Inside, a man with thinning, brown hair and graying, bushy eyebrows sat at a work station flipping over experimental protocols and looking over what little preliminary data there was.

"Good morning." She said somewhat tentatively.

At her voice, the man jerked and looked up at her.

"Well, howdy there!" The man said in a rather distinct drawl. "You must be the newbie!"

Doctor Samuels was momentarily stunned by the thick handlebar mustache he sported.

"Alyssa Samuels." She held out her hand.

The man shook it enthusiastically.

"Pleasure, ma'am. Name's Johnson Summers. Says so on the badge. I'll be yer tech for the day."

Doctor Samuels nodded.

"Thank you, Mister Summers. I'll be counting on you, I'm still getting accustomed to this place."

The man waved a hand dismissively.

"You'll be fine. And call me Johnson. I don't wanna be no Mister Summers 'til I'm good and senile!"

Alyssa chuckled lightly and sat down in a nearby seat.

"So what did you mean by tech? I was under the impression this was a fairly simple experiment."

Johnson shrugged.

"It is, fer the most part. Inject the patient with Eridium, see what happens. I'm really jus' here to provide moral support and whatnot. Easy preliminary work. I could probably do this blindfolded, but Jack didn't really like that, even if he did think it was pretty funny . . . "

"What, back up a minute," Alyssa cut in. "Patient? We don't even know what this stuff does yet and we're injecting it in patients?"

Johnson shrugged.

"Prisoner volunteered, he's quite the terrorist. Take a look at his rap sheet if you want, I was reading it before you got here."

"But . . . but, that's not ethical!" Doctor Samuels sputtered. "How can we just . . . "

Johnson held up a placating hand.

"Don' git yer panties in a twist. They're the Boss's orders. Can't really argue with the man payin' the bills, can I? I'm jus' the messenger here." Her coworker shrugged again. "Anyway, I'll be preppin' the equipment. Take your time with the patient. We're in no hurry here. Jack jus' wants to see progress being made, ya know? Scientific progress and stuff."

The man turned and sauntered out of the room. Alyssa frowned slightly at the man's less than professional attitude. It bothered her slightly that this man was her partner, but he seemed friendly enough. She shrugged it off, assuming it was simply because she was new and unused to how things worked around here.

Her brow furrowed when she considered the orders from above though. Human testing with an untested substance was against every moral and ethical code she had been taught since her college years. Even if he was a criminal, he was still a human being. That thought continued to repeat in her mind as she glanced over the man's extensive history of violence, espionage, and acts of terror. The most recent entailed a plot to bring the Hyperion building down by blowing out the underground support beams; the damage would have spread to the nearby mall which, during the proposed time, would have been packed with civilians.

Doctor Samuels shook her head, trying to wipe away the biases that were creeping into her opinions of the man in the operating room. It simply wouldn't do to meet with the test subject with preconceived notions of right and wrong. Still feeling somewhat disquieted, Alyssa left the observation room and walked into the operations room where Johnson was opening sterile packages onto a nearby table.

There was a man bound to an adjustable chair. He had dark brown hair and was dressed in a plain hospital gown that appeared to be stained with a bit of blood. Doctor Samuels approached the man, glancing at her clipboard for the man's name: Phillip Adams.

"Good afternoon, Mister Adams. As you may have been informed, this will be a simple procedure. We will be injecting a small amount of refined liquid Eridium just under your skin and observe its interaction with your various organ systems."

Rather than nod, like she had seen so many other patients do in the past, the man tried to reach out to her, only to be stopped by the restraints of the chair he was sitting in.

"Please, I've done no wrong!" The man pleaded as she took notes on her clipboard.

Alyssa paused in her writing, glancing at the man. His eyes were full of distress and fear. She noted that they were rather bloodshot and, now that she was closer, one eye appeared to have some heavy bruising, as if he had been hit with something blunt. Her pen continued moving as she addressed the man.

"I'm not here to judge you, Mister Adams." She responded. "This is a research facility, not a courtroom."

"I . . . " the man looked helplessly at her. "They forced me into this! I'd rather go back to prison!"

"You volunteered for this program, or was there something I didn't understand about the word voluntary?" Doctor Samuels frowned, confused at the man's words.

"Like Hyperion would give us a choice," Adams scoffed. "Fascist pigs."

Alyssa frowned at this.

"You signed this, didn't you?" She gestured at her clipboard. "It clearly states that you understand the risks of these tests. Do you wish to back out instead? It's well within your rights to back out."

She missed Johnson shaking his head in annoyance. Phillip Adams looked up at her again, this time his eyes were condescending and mocking.

"You don't know anything do you?" He laughed bitterly. "We needed the revolution to stop this madness, but those cowards betrayed our cause. Sent hundreds to a fate like this one. How can you still call yourself a doctor? You're a monster."

That got to her and her temper flared slightly.

"I'm sorry, sir, but from what I understand, destroying a building that thousands of people work in is hardly a revolution. It's terrorism." All traces of her earlier smile were gone, her mouth now replaced by a thin line.

The man spat.

"Go ahead then. See how long you can hold onto your gilded beliefs." He snarled at her.

"Johnson, please sedate the patient." Alyssa said icily.

Still fuming slightly, Doctor Samuels left the room. She chided herself silently for losing her patience with the man, but something about his words had touched a rather sore spot concerning her views on the ethics behind the entire experiment. She watched from the observation room as her partner attempted to place an IV drip into the struggling man's arm. After several failed attempts, Johnson lashed out, stunning the man in a surprising display of strength.

"Quit yer bitchin', skag-lick."

Doctor Samuels winced slightly at the violence, but she was still too annoyed with the subject's rebellious attitude to feel properly outraged at the blatant lack of professionalism. Phillip Adams moaned piteously as the needle finally entered his arm. Within a few minutes, the man sagged, successfully knocked out.

"Okay Johnson. We'll be working with a 1:1000 dilution of liquid Eridium. The purity is 99.9%. Please commence with the first injection."

Johnson brought out a tube of glowing purple liquid and slowly withdrew a small amount. He flicked the syringe a couple times in a cursory effort to remove any residual air bubbles in the liquid before slipping the needle under the skin of the sedated man's arm.

"There's a bit of irritation on skin contact with the residual Eridium, Doctor." Johnson said calmly. "Proceeding with the injection."

Alyssa watched as the liquid was slowly pushed into the man's arm. Almost immediately after the injection was finished, Phillip Adams's arm jerked violently. Though he was restrained, there was still enough force to knock the empty syringe out of Johnson's hand. The plastic tube clattered noisily on the floor. Johnson was about to reach down to pick it up when Adams's body suddenly sprang up against the restraints.

"What the . . . " Johnson began.

Eyes snapping open against the effects of the anesthesia, Adams let out a blood curling shriek that reverberated against the insulated walls of the small operations room. Johnson took a step back as the man began thrashing this way and that, all the while still bound to the chair. There was a tearing sound as Adams's struggles caused the bindings to cut deeply into his own flesh. Apparently oblivious to the pain, the man's eyes rolled madly as he ran out of breath to continue vocalizing. Adams was now shaking violently as a small puddle of blood started to pool beneath the chair he was sitting in.

Doctor Samuels snapped out of her shock as the man's venomous last words echoed in her mind. She leapt into action.

"No, no, no!" Alyssa shouted as the man in the operations room thrashed about, his vitals fluctuating wildly. "He's seizing! Johnson! Hold him down! We need to . . . "

But before she could direct her partner any further, there was a dull crack as the volunteer's body bent at an unnatural angle; his muscles had somehow contracted hard enough to break his own bones. His arms, still strapped to chair, had broken in two places. Adams's mouth was open in a silent scream, body now locked in a shockingly rapid onset of rigor mortis. Her stomach churned and she could feel the blood leaving her face. Only the years of training kept her mind running logically. Did the Eridium strengthen the man? Or did it simply erode his bones? How could these results be applied so that the next patient doesn't reject the treatment so violently?

She noticed Johnson looking at her rather helplessly, a filled syringe held loosely in one hand. Clearing her throat, she spoke.

"Time of death, 17:23. The – " she faltered, voice shaking noticeably. "The experiment will now proceed with the cadaver."

Something inside her told her it was wrong, that somehow what they were doing was no better than defiling the body. But the prospect of advancing the medical field coupled with the lack of legal repercussions overrode that small ethical dilemma.

After all, the man had willingly volunteered for this testing initiative; based on the paperwork, he had additionally donated his body to science. The entire process had been sanctioned by the patient himself.

Right?

…

"Penny for your thoughts?" Jenkins asked brightly as he sat down in front of Alyssa, a tray of food in his hands.

It had been two days since Doctor Samuels completed her first experiment. She had finally finished struggling with the convoluted data obtained from Phillip Adams. After all their preliminary studies were done, she could see no obvious pattern in Eridium's behavior. At one level of dosage, cells harvested from Adams shriveled up rapidly, but at the next level, the cells swelled and burst. A third concentration of Eridium caused a rapid onset of proliferation and mutation, likely what had caused the man's burst of strength.

"Just a bit frustrated, Jenkins." She muttered as she poked at her food.

Jenkins took a bite out of a sandwich on his plate.

"What's up?" He asked around a mouthful of bread and meat.

"I dunno . . . Eridium seems too volatile for use on humans, its effects are too unpredictable."

Jenkins frowned as he chewed.

"Well, you've only tested it on one patient, right? Maybe you should just go even lower with the dosage. Perhaps somewhere down the line you'll start seeing consistent results."

Alyssa shrugged.

"It's just . . . human testing right off the bat just doesn't sit right with me."

Jenkins nodded in understanding.

"It takes a bit getting used to, that's for sure. I was the same way when I started looking at the effects of those Med Kits." He took a sip of his drink before continuing. "But with the way Hyperion works, we simply take in too many prisoners from the fringe worlds to continuously house them all in our prisons."

"So you just send them off to their death's like this?" Alyssa snapped.

Jenkins raised an eyebrow.

"From what I understand, it's an option only available to death row inmates. They are all bound to die one way or another. These criminals simply stick around and eat up resources before the costly death penalty. It was a proposal to mitigate costs and forward science at the same time."

Doctor Samuels rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Sorry, Jenkins. It's been a rough couple of days." She grumbled in a low voice.

The younger man shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don't worry about it." Jenkins sighed. "It took me a while to get used to it, but in the end it's a reasonable option to give these criminals, some of whom have done atrocities that would make your hair curl."

He grimaced.

"Those border worlds sound like Hell, if you ask me."

Alyssa shrugged.

"That's why Hyperion's always out there patrolling, right? To keep some semblance of law."

She noted the time before taking a bite of her now cold food. Making a face, the older woman wiped her mouth and picked up her tray.

"Sorry, Jenkins, but I gotta run. My next experiment is scheduled to start in a couple minutes." She smiled apologetically.

The mousy haired researcher waved a hand.

"Good luck!" He called out after her.

Feeling a bit better, Alyssa left the cafeteria and proceeded back to the medical wing of the building. She entered Operation Room 1 this time. The room was much larger, almost unnecessarily so for the experiment she had planned out for the day. It was about the same size as the operation rooms back at the Capitol General Hospital set up for living organ transplants.

But this room seemed awkwardly empty with only a single chair set up in the middle of the room. In it sat her next criminal test subject, a spy of sorts for Hyperion. According to the rap sheet provided, Erik Franks was arrested shortly after the opening on the Vault on Pandora and Jack began mining operations for Eridium. The rest of the file certainly did not paint the man in a favorable light.

His mission on Pandora had been to find locations of high bandit activity and arrange for the restoration of order in said locations. Apparently the man wasn't paid enough because he had defected. He was responsible for the death of several squads of soldiers when he led them into a supposedly defenseless town only to find the Vault Hunters and an army of bandits ready and armed to the teeth. He was directly responsible for the deaths of fifty seven men and the loss of a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment.

Alyssa sighed and closed the file. While it hardly mattered why the man was here in the first place, reading the rap sheets did make what she had to do slightly more bearable. She assumed that's what Johnson the tech had been doing. Hearing the door slide open behind her, she turned around, expecting Johnson or some other tech. Instead, a man with a frightfully realistic mask and a finely tailored outfit strolled in.

Handsome Jack.

She swallowed nervously, her thoughts racing. Why was he here? Was this a surprise inspection? Were her efforts not enough? Was she about to be fired? And so on and so forth. His voice jolted her out of her worries.

"Ooh, a newbie. What's your name sweetcheeks?" Jack exclaimed as he strolled over to the observation window.

Doctor Samuels barely suppressed a retort at the rather degrading nickname.

"Doctor Alyssa Samuels, sir," she bit out.

Jack stared at her for a while, before turning his gaze down to the relaxing test subject.

"Eridium test today?" He asked casually, tilting his head at Erik Franks.

"Yes, sir," Alyssa said, gaining a bit of courage. "I've diluted our initial dosage and added in several stabilizing chemicals. Eridium doesn't appear to have an effect on the compounds I've introduced to the mix, so hopefully, the patient will survive and show some promising results."

Jack nodded, appearing to be only half-listening.

"Have you started?"

Alyssa shook her head.

"I'm waiting on my tech. He should be here shortly. We can begin once he gets everything set up."

Jack scoffed.

"Tech, smech. You don't really need Jameson in here to supervise." His face suddenly brightened and he lightly tapped a closed fist against his other hand. "I know! I'll be your moral support guy for the day."

Doctor Samuels blinked. She wasn't exactly ecstatic about the sudden change, but he was the boss. She figured he must know something about science and medicine.

"Okie-dokie, Sammy, let's say we start that test?" Jack said in a tone not unlike a kid in a candy store.

Alyssa frowned.

"It's 'Doctor Samuels'." She hesitated, looking down at the volunteer, before continuing. "The test subject is still conscious. You can't expect me to – "

Jack turned to her, a bright smile on his face.

"Sorry, baby, I can't hear you over the sound of people not being injected with Eridium right now."

Her mind ground to a halt, nearly missing the next words that came out of her boss's mouth.

"This Vault Key didn't make Eridium come outta the ground for nothing, right? So, we've got it – might as well do some good with it!" Jack shrugged nonchalantly.

Her brain struggled to keep up.

"But . . . but . . . " she sputtered indignantly.

Suddenly, the man's visage turned dark. Though he was still smiling, his voice carried an undercurrent of venom.

"You're not eager to be on the other side of that glass, are you, sweetheart?" He stared unwaveringly at her for what seemed like an eternity.

Doctor Samuels swallowed hard. Glancing into the operation room, she saw Erik Franks looking around in fear. Like Philip Adams, he was similarly bound, though the chair was a bit more technologically advanced in that it would allow for robotic aid if a team was short staffed. It didn't take much to figure out that Franks didn't want to be here either. She turned her gaze back to Handsome Jack, who was now staring at her with a rather disturbing look of anticipation on his face. She could only assume this was some kind of test for her. But what kind of outcome he was expecting, she had no idea.

She could only obey. She could see no other choice.

Striding over to the console, she typed in a few commands. Two robotic arms sprang to life within the operation room. Erik Franks was visibly panicking now, struggling against his bonds and screaming out for help. While the glass between the two rooms muffled most of the sound, she could still hear it. She glanced once more at Jack and, seeing that his expression had not changed in the slightest.

". . . Commencing Eridium mutation test on subject number two. Subject: Erik Franks." She spoke into a microphone as she started recording the experiment.

One robotic arm held Franks's arm in a vice-like grip while the other picked up the syringe of chemicals that had been prepared for the experiment. Doctor Samuels watched as the needle entered the man's arm and the plunger was depressed. Several seconds later, Erik Franks was moaning with discomfort.

"It hurts . . . I don't want this anymore!" He pleaded at the one-way glass. "I want to go back to prison! I don't want to participate in the experiment anymore!"

"What's he want?" Jack asked cheerfully, but with a hint of annoyance.

Doctor Samuels grimaced. It was best not to test this man's patience. Best do what he wanted and hope would leave soon.

"I'm not sure. I think he's mildly delirious. However, the stabilizing agents appear to have an effect on the subject's tolerance towards the Eridium." Alyssa noted as she made note of a couple vitals.

"Ah, okay." Jack said happily. "Carry on then."

But as she watched the subject writhe in obvious agony, the seed of doubt grew within her heart.

"Commencing second injection." Her arm felt heavy as she moved it to press the command key for the injection.

"I . . . " Franks began before a wave of nausea hit him.

He vomited onto the sterile floor. He moaned piteously as his limbs began to twitch in what appeared to be some kind of partial seizure.

"Ew . . . " Jack muttered, eyes fixated on the scene before him.

Alyssa bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. Every fiber of her very being screamed out, telling her to stop, to abort the experiment. The emotional part of her brain cried out that it was unethical and inhuman. She forced herself to record vitals, if only to take her mind off of what was going on.

"Please . . . please stop . . . I can't . . . I can't . . .!" Franks choked out between gasps of air as his limbs twitched and shuddered uncontrollably. "Please . . . just kill me!"

He began to scream.

"It hurts! Oh my god, it hurts! Let me out of here!" Franks cried out with a sudden vigor. "We had a deal, you bastard! JAAAAAAAACK!"

"Sounds like it's time for another dose, wouldn't you say, Sammy?" Jack asked.

Doctor Samuels felt sick. Her hand paused halfway to the switch that would initiate a third injection of Eridium. The man's pleas rang throughout that sterile operations room, reverberating off the walls and growing in intensity. By now, the man was shouting. In a broken voice, blood flecked spit spattered the one-way glass that separated the subject from her as he cried out for death. In that moment, she nearly stopped the experiment and forfeited her job.

Nearly.

She could still feel Jack's gaze on the back of her neck and knew, somehow, that quitting wouldn't be quite that simple. Something about his idle threat said he would be perfectly happy to have her take Franks's place if she were to refuse.

"Commencing third injection." Her voice sounded hollow and dead to her ears.

The man's screams increased in intensity and pitch as his eyes rolled back into his head and his limbs began to shake violently in their restraints. This continued for several agonizing minutes. It was incredible how much the man could scream without taking breath. However, he did eventually run out of air and lost consciousness. Erik Franks slumped in the chair, eyes still rolled back in his head. Every once in a while, his limbs would jerk violently against the restraints or his head would snap backwards into the padded seat.

"Oh. Show's over, I guess." Jack said, sounding quite disappointed. "So whatcha gonna do now?"

Alyssa had to swallow several times before she found her voice.

"I . . . I had planned on two more injections. I want to look at bone structure too, since Franks fared much better than the first subject."

Jack nodded, satisfied.

"When do you want the results by?" Doctor Samuels asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Whenever." Jack said dismissively.

A bit of her old temper flared up momentarily.

"But . . . the effects of Eridium on the subjects . . . " she began.

"Eh," Jack said waving a hand. "Just keep at it. We've got plenty of dissidents and prisoners locked away. Vary the doses, mix it with other drugs, I'll let you decide where to go with this. Let me know if anything interesting happens."

An anger rose within her chest, indignation and disgust soon following.

How dare this man sacrifice humans at a whim! What the hell was the point of it all if he didn't even care about the results! What reason did she even have to work this project if her boss didn't even care about what was happening to the subjects!

But as soon as those thoughts emerged, she viciously repressed them. Something inside told her it would be unwise to go against Jack. The man was obviously amoral and possibly completely deranged. If she went against his orders, who knows where she would end up. Taking several deep breaths, she lifted her head, still looking out into the operations room.

"Yes, sir." It was safer this way.

And with that, Jack left the room whistling a jaunty tune to himself.

Erik Franks wasn't moving anymore; his body was still save for the occasional spasm.

…

A/N: **Thanks for reading.**

Well, here's the first part of a four part short story. It's a bit different from the norm. I'm quite sure nobody would even bother to write a story centered on such a minor character. So why am I writing this, of all things, then?

Because I can.

Okay well, I really liked the idea too. The next bit will be up whenever I get time to write, which may take a while so don't hold your breath. Grad school makes it a bit hard to get consistent writing time. I've had a insanely busy summer, and it's only going to stay that way from here on out.

Also, if you for some reason haven't played the fourth DLC yet, you should do so. It's quite fun.

See you next time.


End file.
